1864 Engravings - JAPAN - Battle of Shimonoseki Straits - Attack by Ground Force

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An interesting group of three antique engravings published in The Illustrated London News magazine relating to the Shimonoseki Campaign in Japan and entitled as follows:"The War in Japan: The Naval Brigade and Marines Storming the Stockade at Simonosaki, September 6 th" - full page dated December 10, 1864 - see below"Inside the Lower Battery at Simonosaki after the Conflict" - Cover page dated December 24, 1864 - related text to the reverse"The Assault on the Lower Battery at Simonosaki" - half page dated December 24, 1864Good condition. Page size 11 x 16 inches. Interesting description of the sea battle to the reverseThese are original antique prints and not reproductions . Great collectors items for a reasonable priceNote: International mailing is expensive in a tube ($16.00) - the quoted international rate assumes the pages are lightly folded and mailed in a reinforced envelopeFINAL BATTLE OF SHIMONOSEKI : On August 17, 1864, a squadron consisting of nine British ( Euryalus , Conqueror , Tartar , Leopard , Barrosa , Perseus , Argus , Coquette , and Bouncer ), four Dutch ( Djambi , Metalen-Kruis , Medusa , and Amsterdam ), and three French warships ( Tancrède , Sémiramis , and Dupleix ), together with 2,000 soldiers , marines and sailors, all under the command of Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper of the Royal Navy , steamed out of Yokohama to open Shimonoseki Strait.The U.S. chartered steamer Ta-Kiang accompanied the operation in a token show of support. The two-day battle that followed on September 5 and 6 did what the previous operations could not; it destroyed the Chōshū Domain 's ability to wage war on the western powers. Unable to match the firepower of the international fleet, and amid mounting casualties, Takasugi Shinsaku negotiated peace with the four Western powers and Chōshū forces finally surrendered two days later on September 8, 1864.Allied casualties included 72 killed or wounded; although Ernest Satow describes only 8 killed and 30 wounded for the British and two damaged British ships. A full account of the battle is contained in Ernest Satow 's A Diplomat in Japan . Satow was present as a young interpreter for the British admiral, Augustus Kuper on the British flagship HMS Euryalus , commanded by Captain J. H. I. Alexander. It was also the action at which Duncan Gordon Boyes won his Victoria Cross (VC) at the age of seventeen. Satow described Boyes as receiving the award "for conduct very plucky in one so young." Another VC winner at Shimonoseki was Thomas Pride , and the third was the first American to win the medal, William Seeley . De Casembroot wrote his account of the events in De Medusa in de wateren van Japan, in 1863 en 1864 .The stringent accord, drawn up in the wake of the ceasefire and negotiated by U.S. Minister Pruyn, included an indemnity of $3,000,000 from the Japanese, an amount equivalent to the cost of about 30 steamships at that time. [5] The Tokugawa shogunate proved unable to pay such an amount, and this failure became the basis of further foreign pressure to open Japanese ports; Japan was forced to choose between paying compensation of three million piastres and opening another port on the Inland Sea. [6] The harbor of Hyōgo was opened to foreign trade, and customs tariffs were lowered uniformly to 5%. [7] In 1883, twenty years after the first battle to reopen the strait, the United States quietly returned $750,000 to Japan, which represented its share of the reparation payment. [ citation needed ] read more

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